


A Little Tenderness

by Nigmuff



Series: 2018 Stony Bingo Fills [2]
Category: Marvel Ultimates, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Paralysis, Pre-Slash, Soft Boys, Songfic, Ults Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-03 00:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16315415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nigmuff/pseuds/Nigmuff
Summary: Tony gets hurt on a mission, and Steve has comfort him before he hurts himself even more.





	A Little Tenderness

**Author's Note:**

> For the “Intimacy Without Sex” square on my stony bingo card. This fic was supposed to be a quick and fun one-shot, the kind that your write in one sitting and post in the morning. It did not turn out that way. One month and two beta readers later, I'm finally finished with this thing. On the upside I'm quite happy with it! It is completely self-indulgent and cute. Although Send in the Clowns came out in the 70s, Frank Sinatra sang, so I figured Steve might have heard it on one of his records. I hope you enjoy it!  
> A thousand thanks to WhenasInSilks and Serinah, beta'd this fic into what it is now!

They were a distressingly competent group of people.

That was what Steve thought as he and Tony made their way into the enemy hideout. He liked his enemies to be nice and incompetent, thank you very much, but all they got were aliens whose world-ending plans went back decades, and a superhuman Hulk who could take out eight hundred people without trying, and the Ultimates who were all that stood in their way. The ultimate people, taken down by a failed science experiment.

_Send in the clowns_ , Steve caught himself humming. _There ought to be clowns._

That’s why they were here. Horrifying creatures had been appearing seemingly by random all over New York. It had taken them a while to find the source of the horrifying creatures, but here they were, at long last.

Steve was following Tony as they made their way stealthily through the hideout. It itched at Steve, to listen to the fight going on at the front door and not help, but that wasn’t his job right now. They needed Tony to access the main database to find out what, exactly, these people were up to. Steve was going along to watch his back while he was searching the database. Steve felt that Iron Man didn’t need anyone’s protection, but those were his orders. He would protect Tony.

It was a nice feeling, to protect something.

Despite all the trouble that these villains had given them, it seemed to be straight sailing so far; they only met two guards on their way to the computer room, and those Steve took out efficiently and quietly with his shield. Guards down, Steve and Tony hurried on until they reached the room.

Three people were in the room. Tony took out one with sharp punch under his jaw, and the other two Steve got with one throw of his shield. Steve caught the shield on the rebound, and that was that.

“This was… too easy,” Steve muttered. For all the trouble that the monsters had given them, he would have thought that their creators would have been more resistance than this.

Tony waved his hand. “Don't worry so much, darling! The world is full of incompetents, and we finally get to fight them for a change,” he said. “Much nicer than dealing with the hulk, wouldn’t you agree? They remind me of myself when I was a kid; once a toy stopped interesting me, I threw it at someone else to deal with. Or used its parts in my latest toy robot, whichever came first. What I’m trying to say is, I’m not surprised they haven’t got a fully defended headquarters.”

Steve frowned, but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t get the idea out of his head. Still, Tony had a point. Just because they could make horrible monsters, didn’t mean they were competent.

Tony set to work. He connected a plug from his suit to the computer, and started the download process. He looked through the data while they waited with his visor flipped up.

“Wow,” Tony muttered sarcastically, “they really aren’t that bright. Some guy got a hold of a real life magical book of, like, the magical equivalent of genetics or something, and he and his friends decided to play around. That cat-praying mantis thing we fought the first time? Was something like their hundredth experiment. They’re not too good at this.”

Steve grit his teeth. Their _hundredth_ attempt? That was horrifying. Unease settled over Steve like a blanket. He wanted to do something. He wanted to punch something.

“How long?” He asked. It came out as more of a grunt than he had wanted.

“Hmm, about, uh, five minutes. There doesn’t seem to be anything of real interest, but there are a hundred experiments’ worth of reports. It’s gonna take a bit.”

Steve nodded, and went to stand by the door. He glared out into the corridor. He waited.

The door slammed shut.

Steve recoiled, but before he could do anything else, there was a crash behind him.

Steve turned, body naturally settling into a fighting stance with his shield held in front of him, and took in the scene in a moment: there was a monster in the room, some kind of raccoon thing with a scorpion’s tail, and on the ceiling, there was a vent with a monster-sized hole. In the next moment, he was moving. The monster was smaller than the others, about waist-high, but Tony was focused on the computer, so his reaction might be delayed. Steve threw the shield, but the thing was _fast_. His shield ate dust, because the monster was already in the air, and on Tony.

Steve was running, but he was too late. Tony hesitated in blasting the monster because it was so close to him. All it took was a second, but it was enough for the monster to latch onto his shoulders like a vice, and stab its stinger right into the weak point on his neck.

Tony cried out and reached for the raccoon, but it had already leaped away from him. Steve lunged for it, but it scurried away. He was ready, though. Using instinct and calculations that ran as fast as any computer, he timed his lunge perfectly, so he landed near his abandoned shield, picked it up, and threw it much further than he had calculated last time. It slammed directly in front of the monster, which flinched, drawing up. Steve was already jumping, spinning, and landing with the full force of his body behind his kick to its back. (Why hadn’t Tony gotten up yet?) He kicked its face, side-stepped out of the way of its stinger, which allowed him to grab his rebounding shield mid-air. He let the momentum of the flying shield carry, so he spun it around onto the monster’s face. _Thu-crunch!_ (Where was Tony?!) He felt something give way under the metal, and the force sent the small body flying. It hit the wall with a thud. Blood was seeping out of its head. Steve turned to look for Tony.

Tony was lying on the floor, but Steve couldn’t go check on him just yet. This monster was quickly and dangerous, and it would take only a moment to incapacitate Steve as well. Steve waited a second, watching the prone monster. It wasn’t moving. He approached it slowly, body coiled tight, ready to leap away at the slightest twitch. The body convulsed, the stinger swinging, and Steve stopped, ready. It didn’t get up. He approached again, still cautious. When he was within range, he swung, angling for the sharp part of the shield, and chopped the thing’s head off, then sprung out of range again before the stinger could decide to move anymore. Steve watched a bit more, just to be extra sure. (One of the previous monsters, a particularly vicious one that had the body of a hyena with too many teeth and a too big jaw, had been killed in a square. When they turned their backs on it, it had started attacking civilians.)

Nothing. Finally satisfied, Steve moved to the next priority item: Tony, who had not assisted, nor shown any signs of movement since he had been stung.

“Tony?” He turned and saw Tony’s body, still in its armor, lying prone on the floor. Steve’s blood turned to ice. “Tony!”

A piece of debris, broken off by the monster’s forced entry, fell from the ceiling and landed horrifyingly close to Tony’s face. Tony didn’t so much as twitch. Steve ran to his side.

“Tony, what’s wrong?” Steve crouched down and put a hand on Tony’s arm. Tony’s face was slack, his mouth hanging open, and his eyes wide. He was staring at the debris like it was the most dangerous thing he had ever seen. Well, it would have been pretty bad if it had landed on his face, but why hadn’t he moved to protect himself? Put his hands in front of his face or rolled away?

“Tony! Status report, soldier!”

Finally, Tony slid his eyes back up to Steve. His eyes were wide and terrified, and his breathing was quickening, but that was it. Oh, God, had he been immobilized? That had happened before; one of the monsters had stabbed Pietro and a few civilians. It didn’t have any lasting effect, but whoever was affected were immobilized for a few hours.

Getting paralyzed in the middle of an enemy’s hideout wasn’t good. Steve checked his comms, but all he got was static. Fucking magic. Great, so now they were stuck in this room with a mutated corpse, no communication with the outside world, and Tony couldn’t move.

Steve got up to check the door, but it was stuck. He was just about to look at the ventilation that the monster had come through, when he heard a choking sound.

Tony was still lying on the ground, but he wasn’t looking too good. He seemed like he was well on his way to panicking.

Without thinking about it, Steve was at Tony’s side again. “Hey, hey, shh,” he said, in a gentler voice than he would have thought he was capable of. Tony looked at him, but then his eyes focused on a point just beyond Steve. Steve looked behind his shoulder, worried that the monster had got up again or something else had come in, but there was nothing. Was Tony hallucinating? Whatever was happening to him, it wasn’t good.

Steve sat there for a moment, panicking; all he could think was that he was useless and Tony needed help. Then he pulled himself together; he had no medical knowledge, but he could keep Tony safe until someone who did came. Steve put his hand on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony’s eyes shot up to look at him. He looked agonized, terrified, but he could see Steve, right? Steve’s heart went out to him, this man who had always seemed so brilliant and untouchable, and he couldn’t hold back; he gathered up Tony’s body, and cradled him close to his chest. Mindful of Tony’s head, because his neck couldn’t seem to hold up its weight, he leaned Tony’s head against his shoulder and couldn’t help but pet him, running his fingers through his black hair. Steve tried shushing, like Tony was a scared baby, but it didn’t seem to be doing much good. Tony’s heart rate, when he checked his pulse, was way too elevated for comfort, and Tony’s eyes were darting everywhere. Steve couldn’t imagine what he was seeing, but it seemed bad, and Steve hated this. He hated feeling so helpless. He had just defeated that monster; they should have been safe now. Tony’s breath caught, and he shuddered, and Steve grit his teeth. Without really thinking about it, only spurred on by the overwhelming urge to help Tony, Steve took a deep breath.

And began to sing.

“There's a small hotel,  
With a wishing well,  
I wish that we were there,  
Together.”

Steve’s body was curling in on itself, pushing in around Tony’s body, as if to shield him from the world.

“There's no bridal suite  
One room bright and neat  
Complete for us to  
Share together.”

Steve noticed that Tony’s breathing had gone from hyperventilating to elevated, and he breathed a sigh of relief. But they were still alone in this dark, hostile room, with nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. Steve felt a deep, burning embarrassment at the thought that he had just sung for Tony. Tony wasn’t saying anything now, but what about later? Would he laugh, and tell the team about Steve’s out-of-practice voice, and the tune he couldn’t carry in a bucket? Steve shook himself. Whatever happened, happened, and there was no point in torturing Tony over something he hadn’t even done yet. No matter what happened next, Tony was now looking at him with big, hopeful eyes, and Steve just wanted him to not be afraid. To know that Steve would protect him, no matter what.

“Looking through the window,  
You can see a distant steeple.  
Not a sign of people.  
Who wants people?”

 Steve finished the song, cradling Tony’s body close and stroking his hair. Tony’s breathing evened out, and his eyes lost that frantic look, but he never looked away from Steve, giving him his undivided attention. Steve went through his repertoire, starting with the songs he had heard recently on his own vinyl, right up to the ones his mother had taught him to sing so long ago. He sang about love and sorrow, bravery and heartbreak, weddings and funerals. A part of him marveled at what was going on, unable to believe that he was cradling Tony Stark, of all people, and serenading him without Tony saying anything, but it was a small part. In this room with little light, he had created a little bubble where the world was far, far away, and all that matter was the immobile body in his arms. And if he found himself pressing his cheek against Tony’s hair, or lost his mind for a moment and pressed his lips to his hair, then no one called him out on it.

Since the ice, he hadn’t even talked for this long let alone sing, and he was starting to feel the strain. His vocal cords weren’t working the way they used to; there were a few notes he found he couldn’t reach, and overall it was awkward and clumsy, not at all like the way he used to sing while his mother played the piano. But it was serviceable, and far better than the oppressive silence. He was starting to go hoarse, though.

Just when he was wondering whether he should stop or else lose his voice for the next few days, he heard something coming from outside. Not wanting to startle Tony, Steve just lowered his voice enough for Tony to hear and lowered him to the ground behind a computer server, out of sight from the door. Tony’s eyes stayed trained on him. Steve grabbed his shield, and placed himself between Tony and the door. He stopped singing entirely, but he put his free hand on Tony’s arm, just so he would be reassured that Steve wasn’t going anywhere. With his enhanced hearing, he listened closely to what was coming from outside. It sounded like… footsteps? Human footsteps, at least, and from more than one person. It was either his teammates here to rescue him, or the scientists, who didn’t pose much of a threat. Still, an ounce of prevention was worth a pound of cure, as his mother used to say.

“Captain America! Iron Man!” came Thor’s booming voice.

Steve relaxed, and he grinned down at Tony. “Help’s here, Tony,” he said softly. He caught his thumb rubbing Tony’s arm. “We can get you looked at now.”

Tony hummed, and it sounded relieved to Steve, or maybe he was just projecting. Making sure to stay in Tony’s line of vision the whole way, he went over to the door.

“In here!” he called, and went to bang on the door for good measure.

After that, it was over quickly. Thor destroyed the door with a swing of his mighty hammer. Jan was there as well, and she called some SHIELD medics over to take a look at Tony, and then they were all whisked away to the Triskelion for a debrief.

Steve wrote down that he did “everything in his power keep Tony calm until the medics arrived.” He didn’t think the debrief needed any more information than that.

***

“…there shouldn’t be any lasting effects,” the nurse was saying.

Jan nodded. “So when should he be cleared for missions again?”

“In a week’s time, hopefully,” the nurse replied. “There are some signs he needs to look out for, but as long as there are no more symptoms, then that should mean he’s made a full recovery.”

Tony waved. “I’m right here.” His grin was a bit loopy, but he could at least move and talk now.

Steve was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. He didn’t want to go any further into the room and deal with any consequences of his actions, but at the same time he couldn’t bear to leave without seeing that Tony was okay. Tony was such a confident and larger-than-life character that seeing him so small and fragile had really shaken Steve.

“Well if you would finally sober up, we could talk to you directly,” Jan said.

“Those who get stabbed by the smallest monster while in a suit of armor don’t have the right to complain,” Thor added, grinning.

“I’m feeling a distinct lack of appreciation here,” Tony complained. He wasn’t even slurring that badly, the way he did when he first started to regain control over his own body.

“When you’re able to walk in a straight line, we’ll throw you a party.” Jan picked up her bag. “Well, we’ll leave you to your convalescing, Tony. Try not to take over the hospital while we’re gone.” For a split second, the way Jan was looking at Tony turned a bit fond. “Take care of yourself.”

“Aye, friend Tony. Take care, and we can all go to sushi again.”

“That I pay for. Yes, I’ll be so glad to buy fifty tons of sushi, just so you and Cap can fill your gullets.”

Thor laughed, clapped Tony on the shoulder, then left the room with Jan and the nurse. Steve pushed himself away from the wall so he could follow, but Tony’s voice stopped him.

“Steve?”

Steve stopped more from shock than anything else. He had never heard Tony sound so small and unsure of himself. He turned to look at Tony. Tony must have been thinking the same thing, because he cleared his throat and sat up straighter.

“Thank you.”

Steve blinked. He felt a strange combination of pleased and embarrassed, and had no idea how to respond to that. He went for the obvious.

“You’re welcome. You’re a good teammate, Tony.” Really, Steve? He had held Tony to his chest like he was a child just because he was good to have on the battlefield? Steve didn’t know, and he knew even less what else to say. He closed his mouth, feeling his throat close up. He suddenly felt oppressively awkward, with no idea how to go from here. Hoping this wasn’t a bad choice, he nodded and turned to leave.

“…You have a lovely voice.”

Steve stopped, as a jolt of… of… embarrassment or pleasure or _something_ , too tight and hot, flashed through his chest. He still did not know what to say, so he just threw himself through the door.

He couldn’t get the words out of his head all day.

 


End file.
